Cultish: the Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. Our book this month was “Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism”by linguist Amanda Montell

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds.

Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.

We found this book fascinating and we know you will too. This The Good Book Club Meeting was originally held on March 9th, 2025